Solomon's_key

Category description

This category aims to get the best ending by collecting the pages of space and time and finally saving the princess (or "prinsess", as it's spelled in this game). It's possible to both use some golden wings (in rooms 23, 31 and 39) or death abuse (room 32 and 36 - these rooms are skipped when warping), while still getting the best ending. The videos below show the route without warps and without death abuse.

The terminology from the game mechanics page is used below.

Fireball management

Given that fireballs are scarce, cost time to both grab and launch and how they need to be shot in the order they are picked up, fireball management is a huge task when routing this game. Below is a document that shows which fireballs are collected and where they are used in the route described in this section. There are also some comments about time saved by fireballs in the different rooms and how much time they take to collect.

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Level-by-level description

Room 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCeAIyJtLhc
Rooms 1-6 are the same as in the normal ending run.

Room 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTQHB2k_zuU

Room 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RznY8Cdog8E

Room 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJYm0McO474

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfDesiyTDbY
This solution is ~0.3 seconds slower than above (depending on how tight it's played). The extra fireball can be used in room 8, where it saves ~1.3 seconds. So in total one second faster for the cost of two running edge jumps.

Room 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOmQZ77BsVo

Room 6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt0QmJM-d2w

Room 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRBA35CfQ9Y
Just like in the normal ending run, the room solution looks slow. The enemies quite efficiently prevent faster solutions (without resorting to very tight maneuvers such as shown in the tas). It can also be sped up by one sec with the use of a fireball, but that doesn't seem to work well with the fireball management in the following rooms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVbJ2vY_xZo
2.5 seconds faster than the above solution. Of course it comes with a cost of added risk...

Room 8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkIyA4xAuHs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE_dlrqE5zQ
This solution is 1.3 seconds faster than above, but requires to alternative solution in room 4 (notice the difference in fireball inventory between the two videos).

Room 9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Bcbd5GDoc

Room 10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vprqi81urlg
The jump to the exit must be performed so to allow for the next room to start with a buffered jump (release up before hitting the exit).

Room 11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRySZUfCpfE

Room 12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O__HS_-1s

Room 13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWcaS4aTbgc
Just like in the normal ending run, the ghost is dispatched to reduce slowdown (and also to avoid dealing with it later on).

Room 14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSoMhKld3v4
Same as in the normal ending run (the fireball inventory doesn't necessary match with previous/next rooms).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvHOP72Kyys
This solution avoids the running edge jump and is ~0.6 seconds slower. It's worth to note that it's easy to miss the edge after picking up the key and falling down. If that happens, the two solutions become more or less equivalent because you have to wait for the enemies above to pass by before jumping up to the top.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eRCAxsRD6E
This is an even safer way to clear the room. It's two seconds slower than the fastest solution.

Room 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpKiJnG1uIg

Room 16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ysfKdXeFw

Room 17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbBej_CiyLI
It's possible to jump from the second to last ledge to the exit, but it's one frame slower than just walking into the exit.

In this video, one of the enemies drops an upgrade jar, which will end up saving time in room 19 (more about the time saved is described under room 19). The enemy drops are sort of rng based. It hasn't been researched exactly how this works (but the tas authors might know?). However, from empirical testing, the exact same actions have a good probability of reproducing the same drops between attempts. The table below shows if one of the enemies will drop an upgrade jar when ducking from the beginning of the room (any action from Dana seems to have the possibility to affect the rng) and shooting the fireball at different frames (measured from the first frame of movement in the room). As can be seen, there is a 50/50 chance of getting an upgrade jar. Another observation is that there is a 10/12 chance of an upgrade jar in the interval 73-84. These frames can be identified by looking at the sparkball positions. The below gif shows this interval in slow motion (note: from console experience, trying to launch the fireball when the sparkballs are at the bottom right corner of the block seems to work pretty well for getting an upgrade jar, so slightly different timing than what's observed on emulator). Be aware of that the above information is not 100% accurate. The drops will vary slightly for unknown reasons, but the overall information seems to hold (50% overall chance of an upgrade jar and the interval with increased probability).

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The upgrade jar is dropped by one of the wizards (the sparkballs never drop upgrade jars). Since there are three wizards, it's possible to get 2 or even 3 upgrade jars. With the route shown here, any additional upgrade jars wouldn't be of any use since there is only one normal fireball in the inventory. However, it'd be possible to pick up one more in room 13, have it upgraded here in room 17 and then skip the super fireball in room 22. That would overall save around half a second. It's quite uncommon to get 2 upgrade jars though, so it would add quite a bit of risk.

Room 18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ALUf1j2s3U

Room 19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbA4mM63gZ0
This shows how to complete the room without using any fireballs and without picking up the super fireball. This is used when getting an upgrade jar in room 17.

If you arrive here without getting an upgrade jar in room 17, you have to get rid of the normal fireball and collect the super fireball in this room (for use in room 22). Below are two solutions showing that scenario.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RQF7KI6wiI
Roughly 2.5 seconds slower than above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCgBt8pNiZ0
This is an alternative with the aim to avoid the hard jump to the super fireball in the first solution. It's one second slower though.

Room 20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-GAJ1ijfP0

Hidden room (page of time)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buLZATLjyng

Room 21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgtQ5mR8DdE
Very similar to the normal ending run.

Room 22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCgXzA2jTs8
Same as in the normal ending run (the fireball inventory doesn't necessary match with previous/next rooms).

Room 23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3-EAChIoEQ
Very similar to the normal ending run.

Room 24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z57AEUhQZcM
There is more to the first sequence than what it might appear. Releasing the first sparkball (by breaking the block beneath it) and still avoiding it is only possible at certain frames. There are 3 (or so) valid frames just when Dana is about to run into the block. With practice, the success rate of this can still be fairly high, but with such a small time window, even a minor moment of inattention will result in failure.
Picking up the hourglass is roughly 20 frames slower than trying to clear the room as quickly as possible. It does however save around 50 frames of countdown, resulting in an overall gain of half a second.

Room 25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvcYj1MPTLk
The last jump to below the exit is a bit precise, but can be done consistently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhdrMqitjGs
If you pick up the key at the right frame, the spawns will be delayed and it's possible to reach the exit without stopping. If no spawns appear before or "right after" picking up the key, you can go for this solution. Otherwise the one above. For this to work, you basically need to reach the key as quickly as possible. The delay of spawns by picking up the key is part of the game mechanics and works in all rooms. With the route described here, it's just not beneficial in other places.

Room 26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RllHmHX2SI

Room 27

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkkDGL1ulTw
The "safe" solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZvqtLl6hWw
This variant is a good deal riskier than the solution above, but is also almost a second faster.

Room 28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RaT0NBa8HI

Room 29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpAdQOeKHnQ
Unlike the normal ending category, the gargoyle always seems to start out by going either right if you arrive here on the first life. However, sometimes (quite often actually), the goblins on the floor start out by punching. This seems to be rng-dependent. That means you can't run and jump straight to the seal, but instead have to make a quick pause (otherwise you'll run into the left goblin). The room can still be cleared in the same way as the video shown here, but it will be 0.3 seconds slower and the jump to the block before the key will be even harder.

Room 30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUnErkf0qQw
Same as in the normal ending run (the fireball inventory doesn't necessary match with previous/next rooms).

Room 31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcojiKUjtic
Just like the comment for the normal ending run, this room could be faster with more use of advanced techniques (zigzag climbing etc). It's fairly late in the game and risk increases dramatically though. The solution shown here is not trivial, but still relatively safe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B68-pNOcVs
Reference solution with zigzag jumping. It's 4.5 seconds faster than above (1.5 enemy cycles faster). There might be even better solutions in real-time, but it hasn't been thoroughly tested. The difficulty of this solution is already quite high (it took more than 60 real-time attempts to make this video, including a save state when picking up the key).

Room 32

This is one of the rooms that can benefit from death abuse (drop down to the key and into the blue flame, jump to the exit when restarting the room). However, the solutions shown here complete the room normally.

There are two variations to how this room plays out. Depending on how fast Dana drops down, the left gargoyle may fire a shot or not at the start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wFpVceAR4A
The left sargoyle fires a shot at the start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Q8ZbhgH4k
The left gargoyle doesn't fire a shot at the start.

Room 33

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7kxuvlBrac
This room solution is quite carefully designed to avoid trouble from the birds and sparkballs.

Room 34

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9yGobiLK54
Combining the increased countdown speed from the grey jar and the yellow hourglass allows for a low timer when exiting the room (and thus saving time during point countdown during the following room transition). Using the block magic on the grey jar is only to create a controlled delay. Picking up the grey jar and then the hourglass asap will have the time run out before being able to reach the exit.

Room 35

Due to many sprites at the same time and resulting lag, this room varies a bit from time to time. Sometimes the spawns are a bit earlier/later, sometimes the enemy movements are a bit faster/slower. The general solution concepts shown below should always work, but time can be gained/lost depending on how the room plays out from one time to the next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rdSSH_7ct4
Problematic room. Dana needs to wait a few times near the top. The timing of the gargoyles' fireballs and the spawning of the demon heads don't allow for much time to be saved without making everything a whole cycle faster. The gargoyles' fireballs can create a sprite overload that prevent some demon heads from spawning, so one can experiment with that to come up with alternative solutions. It's also possible to come up with faster solutions involving the use of a super fireball (to be replaced in room 39). But there is no obvious solution as of how to squeeze out more time by doing this without adding lots of more risk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdtKOTj8_ks
For reference, this solution is around 4 seconds faster than above by using advanced techniques (zigzag climbing and a difficult drop after the key). Possible in real-time, but it adds a considerable risk this late in a run.

Room 36

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMoxsU019MU
Death abuse would save around half a second (right after picking up the key). Important for this solution to work is to collect the jar as late as possible, while still being able to avoid the wizard (guy in hat). Collecting the jar too early and the drop from the enemy on the top will block the possibility to create a block after picking up the key. If that happens, try to block the skull in the level below instead (0.3 seconds slower though).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siOGzHkdqsI
This is an easier alternative, which uses a super fireball. It's one second faster than above.

Room 37

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wokuhxgur1c
Same as in the normal ending run (the fireball inventory doesn't necessary match with previous/next rooms).

Room 38

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VO7LK3V5PE
Same as in the normal ending run (the fireball inventory doesn't necessary match with previous/next rooms).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnJREXSFXyw
This solution makes the drop in the middle easier. It's one second slower than the first solution though.

Room 39

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq9wj7CNh60
The climbing becomes one second faster by the use of a fireball (as shown in the normal ending run).

Room 40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekox-Bq4dso

Room 41

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTjslv2Rxm4
Just like in room 10, make sure to set up for a buffered jump at the start of room 42. During the last drop to the floor, it's easy to first land on the block that is destroyed by the demon head. That stops the vertical momentum and renders the shown solution impossible (not enough time to avoid the demon heads when jumping up on the left side). When that happens, jump up on the right side instead (one second slower though).

Room 42

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ok175atLRU

Room 43

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imAfZqK2N1s

Room 44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp9ovThMWPs

Hidden room (page of space)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUeQ79t9dyQ
The bottom grey block only becomes breakable once Dana used block magic on the exit.

Room 45

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RUgpqaZ4tM
Same as in the normal ending run.

Room 46

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrqOZU6RuGw
Very similar to the normal ending run.
There is a trick for the positioning on the block below the exit. If Dana's nose is covered by the white border surrounding the exit (or even more to the left), the position is correct for making the Solomon's seal appear like shown here. If Dana's nose is visible to the right, create a block to the right of the exit, jump to it, turn around and make the seal appear. It wastes around two seconds though.

Room 47

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EmmMQzCRWw
There are several ways of clearing upper right corner (blue flame and Solomon's seal). All the variants will not be shown here, but it basically boils down an individual risk-reward decision that has to be made in a speedrun setting.

Room 48

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2FMdxWLglQ
Same as in the normal ending run.

Prinsess' room

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L40ra25sBjg
The grey block on the left side that allows Dana to enter the outer heart becomes breakable by using the block magic on the right red flame.

Solomon's room

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0znpPGnyZg
This solution is slightly more convoluted than in the normal ending category. However, the solution from the normal ending can't be used (but the solution shown here would work in the normal ending as well). The turnaround time of the upper left ghost can vary. Testing has shown that arriving here on the first life using the normal ending route, first jumping over the ghost was consistently possible. Using the best ending route described on this page, the ghost will turn around a few frames faster, making the normal ending solution not possible (the ghost will hit Dana before being possible to jump over it). Note that this is extremely laborious to test out in practice, since you need to arrive here on the first life to get one shot of testing it. Once you die, in or before this room, "the rng changes" (this is an inaccurate statement, but hopefully it's clear what's meant) and so will the behavior of the ghost. There are minor differences between emulator and console that can be seen in some of the other rooms. This makes it unreliable to test such a precise trick as this on emulator and expect it to work on console as well. Needless to say, the sample number is therefore very small... Anyways, the two solutions are pretty much equally fast.